onfirmation.
The single and precious idea of genius, however obscure, is eventually
disclosed; for original discoveries have often been the developments of
former knowledge. The system of the circulation of the blood appears to
have been obscurely conjectured by SERVETUS, who wanted experimental
facts to support his hypothesis: VESALIUS had an imperfect perception
of the right motion of the blood: CAESALPINUS admits a circulation
without comprehending its consequences; at length our HARVEY, by
patient meditation and penetrating sagacity, removed the errors of his
predecessors, and demonstrated the true system. Thus, too, HARTLEY
expanded the hint of "the association of ideas" from LOCKE, and raised a
system on what LOCKE had only used for an accidental illustration. The
beautiful theory of vision by BERKELEY, was taken up by him just where
LOCKE had dropped it: and as Professor Dugald Stewart describes, by
following out his principles to their remoter consequences, BERKELEY
brought out a doctrine which was as true as it seemed novel. LYDGATE'S
"Fall of Princes," says Mr. Campbell, "probably suggested to Lord
SACKVILLE the idea of his 'Mirror for Magistrates'." The "Mirror for
Magistrates" again gave hints to SPENSER in allegory, and may also "have
possibly suggested to SHAKSPEARE the idea of his historical plays." When
indeed we find that that great original, HOGARTH, adopted the idea of his
"Idle and Industrious Apprentice," from the old comedy of _Eastward Hoe_,
we easily conceive that some of the most original inventions of genius,
whether the more profound or the more agreeable, may thus be tracked in
the snow of time.

In the history of genius therefore there is no chronology, for to its
votaries everything it has done is PRESENT--the earliest attempt stands
connected with the most recent. This continuity of ideas characterizes the
human mind, and seems to yield an anticipation of its immortal nature.

There is a consanguinity in the characters of men of genius, and a
genealogy may be traced among their races. Men of genius in their
different classes, living at distinct periods, or in remote countries,
seem to reappear under another name; and in this manner there exists in
the literary character an eternal transmigration. In the great march of
the human intellect the same individual spirit seems still occupying the
same place, and is still carrying on, with the same powers, his great work
through a line of centuri